There does exist sound
by Tsuonae
Summary: Short Irunaru. Naruto comes home from a mission to some rough times. LIGHT angst, fluffy.


**Another WHAT IF fic.** This time its Iru/naru, baby. I Love this pairing dearly but i doubt I'll ever write more than this for it, i don't like the idea of them in AU, and its so hard to make a good plot line for them...Narto was older when he went to the water country and saw the whole zabuza thingy (it would have had so many more possibilities if they had been)...so for the past few years he'd been doing the D-C class missions and nothing post-Gaara's very first intro..( I thought it was stupid the kids didn't react more to seeing a criminal of Zabuza's class, 'cause they were jsut genins). Naruto is at elast 17 and the rest you can read about. Oh yeah...it was dark when they got back to the villiage.

EDITED: I am SO sorry! I did a short edit before i posted the first time... I rushed too much. My dad reformatted the computer with word processing...so while i still have my stories i'm gonna have to pay more attention to my writing now, 'cause while i wouldn't mind a beta, i don't know of any good ones...and i'd hate to just pick so,eone who i don't know and never knwo when they'll be done...sadly, i can be great editing other pplz stuff, but like msot writers...my own writing goes right over my head. Now this is edited.

**There does exist; sound**

_"In a world of silence, there are those that would break that barrier,"_

**Iru** - Exist

**Naru** - Sound

Walking home, Naruto was too distracted to notice the normal glares he was receiving. The past week had been hard, so many things had happened. Naruto doubted things would ever be the same. Haku's situation had scared and frustrated him, strangely reminding him of his own. Not that his lover would ever use him in such a way. To him, he wasn't a weapon or an object; he truly was the one person that loved him in this villiage, if he didn't believe that then he would have had nothing left.

Then to add to his emotional baggage, the Hokage had chosen now to hold the chuunin exams. "That's just fucking wonderful, isn't it old man?" He muttered. Inwardly, the Kyuubi purred reassuringly and Naruto smiled at the feeble attempt. He and the Kyuubi had an understanding; Naruto didn't kill himself and take the stupid kitsune to hell with him and the kitsune didn't torture him with a constant internal critique...

Sighing and glaring darkly at the unfriendly villagers still dawdling this late in the evening, Naruto ran a tanned hand through his sun-bleached hair. He was supposed to go right to the house when he got back, he'd promised. "And Iruka worries like an old mother hen..." Shaking his head, Naruto discretely formed the symbols of the transportation jutsu. Less than a year

of this and he was already an expert at sneaking around. It wouldn't be good for his reputation if the villiage was know exactly where he was every night.

He appeared in a back alley more than a block from Iruka's. He knew had promised himself to be discrete when it came to Iruka, but he couldn't help but want to walk a little more. It was a good thing the block ahead seemed empty. He would ahev gotten to Iruka's a lot earlier if they hadn't been sidetracked...Fighting an unknown enemy with his teammates after returning from the mission from hell was not his idea of a good time.

Those Sand-nins, they'd been strong, all of them; the first two were weak enough for him to defeat of course, but he third..."Gaara", he'd been different; something in his eyes had made Kyuubi pay attention for once; he'd been growling. If nothing else, Naruto had learned to pay attention to Kyuubi.

Naruto was so distracted that he was struck dumb when he was brought from his thoughts. The walk hadn't been nearly as far as he'd thought and he was now in front of Iruka's house.

A faint prickle of uneasiness went through him, Iruka would know something was wrong; he both loved and hated that about him, he could never hide from Iruka.

A faint growling, not hostile, but just enough to get his attention. /Kit,

your mates still awake, shouldn't you wake up and get up there.../

Smiling slightly, Naruto shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. Your just an just an old softy aren't you, fox?" The kyuubi growled threateningly at him, but Naruto laughed. "I'm going." Being in the same body, Kyuubi was fiercely protective of Naruto and it seemed that had translated to Iruka once they'd become lovers...Naruto thought it best not to ask how that worked.

Pushing down the insistant doubt in the back of his mind, Naruto stealthily made his way to the bathroom window; it was the easiest accesible and close to the kitchen where he knew Iruka was grading papers. He'd seen the light from the steet. The bathroom window was always open, Iruka had windows in every room but the bathroom he always left slightly open; he had issues with the steam from the shower.

The window gave easily, and in a move he would never have been able to do five years ago, Naruto turned before he hit the floor, landing on his hands and feet, crouching. The window was high, but still he barely managed it. He hadn't made a sound yet. Iruka was a great ninja, the best when it came to basics, but at night when he was half dead with a cup of coffee and academy papers he was hopeless.

Following the light shining throguh the open door, Nauto peeked out to see the normal ebony pony-tail still tightly bound on his lovers head. Seeing his lover now, Naruto was unable to stop the flow of emotion. In a fight, on missions he could hide what he felt, mostly; everything but the anger. Right now, in his safe plce, he couldn't hold back that sadness. Before he could stop himself he went forward and wrapped his arms around Iruka's neck from behind.

Iruka stiffened only a minute before relaxing again. "Your finally back. How'd it go?"

Nuzzling his face lightly into the soft hair on top of his ehad, Naruto didn't speak for a moment, savoring that feeling of safety now taking him over; not dissipating his unease, but helping him to calm. "Shinobi aren't supposed to reveal their missions to others..." He smiled, knowing Iruka wanted to know out of worry, though he would find out tomorrow at the assignment office.

"Since when did that ever stop you?"

Visions of Haku, of Zabuza fighting madly the hordes of Gato's army came upon him. Haku's death, Sasuke lying there cold. The hopelessness of the situation, and suddenly he was back there, feeling so cold and yet boiling over with rage, wanting to rip something apart, to take someone's head off...Naruto shook his head and held tighter around Iruka. 'That was too much, too cruel...'

"Naruto?" Iruka lifted a hand to Naruto's face and turned slightly. Naruto's eyes were closed, and he was trying to bury his face in Iruka's hair. Standing, Iruka took hold of Naruto and Naruto only held on tighter now to Iruka's middle. "What happened?"

"We almost died."

Iruka looked worriedly down at the shorter boy, then lead him into the bedroom, abandoning his coffee and test papers. Laying down on the bed, Naruto flopped bonelessly down on the pillows next to him, his arm going into his stomach and nearly knocking the air out of him. "What happened? I'd rather hear it from you than the edited version from Kakashi tomorrow..." It was an idle threat of course...After this evening, Iruka was positive that Kakashi would be more obnoxious than ever...but he was a good sensei for Naruto. What had pissed Iruka off was that the four jounins had ALL submitted their entire teams. This wasn't a competion between the jounin, it was a test of the genin's future.

Naruto sighed, calming down some, he opened his eyes, but stared out the

window, not at Iruka. "I promised just like always I'd come back, Ne?"

Iruka smiled, kissing Naruto lightly and laying still, calmly waiting to see if Naruto would continue.

"That mission wasn't B-class. Not chance; Sasuke almost died. I almost killed someone..." Ouwardly Iruka showed no sign of changing and Naruto took a deep breath, continuing on after stopping abruptly. "There were two people we fought; they reminded me so much of us...I know, we have more than that; I know...But they seemed so hopelees...Maybe they weren't meant to be together from the begining."

Iruka frowned at the old insecurity still present in Naruto, but allowed him to talk.

"Haku...he couldn't have been a year or two older than me...and he was so alone; convinced he meant nothing, and still he wanted so much to protect the one he loved, to please him... and then he died for that...And then he---" Naruto's hand dug into Iruka's arm, but he was no longer so choked for breath, "--That BASTARD! He just dismissed it like it was nothing, his lover, no matter how he had given his life for him, he just waved off Haku's death...I probably shouldn't care about that, as a shinobi I shouldn't care about someone who almost killed Sasuke..."

As always, Iruka didn't say anything while he was talking, didn't feel he had to point out to Naruto as he had so many times before. Compassion for an enemy was not nessesarily a weakness; even shinobi were not emotionless. To be repressed was a fault, not a stength

of shinobi code; to feel caring for one person did not mean you were discounting another. Naruto rolled over onto his back on the bed, Iruka was on his side now, listening.

"Haku was so good, I guess he did help Sasuke in faking his death...and even Zabuza cared in the end. It was so hopeless, that situation, I can't see any way that they could have lived...I can't help but think we might be just as doomed." Naruto smiled over at Iruka, a sad smile, "I mean, we've been together a while, but we still have to hide; they were different than us, but

I think somehow that Haku understood me like I did him...He asked me if I had a precious person; one person I would do anything for..."

Iruka looked sympathetically at naruto, rolling once again onto his stomach and resting his head on his arms, staring at Naruto. "We're not going to be like them. We don't have to hide, I'm one of the only Chounin sensei the academy has; and I've never cared what the village thought. I didn't care when I had you as a student and I really don't care now..."

Naruto yawned. Iruka reckogized it clearly as the standard strategic retreat, Naruto not wanting to take up that conversation, but he allowed it. It had been a long night for both of them. "How about you turn the light out so we can go to bed? You always stay up when I'm away on missions, you need sleep as much as I do."

Standing, Iruka rubbed Naruto's back affectionately, "I'll come to bed in a little while, I have

to put the tests away; I think I might make some tea." He said this knowing that Naruto never went to sleep when they were at home unless Iruka was in the bedroom; he had no idea why. Naruto would more than likely lay in bed, lazily waiting until Iruka came back and too tired to feel like getting up. "Try to go to sleep."

Naruto murmured agreeably, but buried his face in the pillow, muffling any legimate response.

Standing carefully, Iruka left the door to the darkened bedroom open, he ahdn't turned the light on upon coming in. Making his way to the kitchen, he turned off the hallway light. The papers were all over the table, more than thirty essays on chakra reserves. He had finished less than half.

He took out a small apckage of Tea from the canister. He didn't really know what it was, one fot he chounin teachers had given it to him, he'd never asked what kind but it was good; he even got Naruto to try it on a good day. Pouring hot water into the pot, he enjoyed the soothing scent of the tea and turned to put away the papers. Naruto being insecure about the two of them was nothing new; it was expected from a serious relationship that had only been formed in the span of less than a year.

He known Naruto his whole life, and had originally never even considered anything remotely like this. True enough Naruto was scarcely ten years younger, but watching a hyper little boy with blonde hair had reminded him so much of himself he'd never even thought of him as anything else; until he'd hit puberty. That had been...a wake up call; a rush of cold water.

Naruto was seventeen, every bit as hyper as he'd always been and strangely still possesing soem remnant of that childish aura...but he'd grown a lot. It was the way of the shinobi; that they grow up early and die early, and had he grown up as anything else, Iruka may have known something to hold him back from their relationship...but this was too rare, happiness in their line of work love was too precious to give up so willingly, when one found solace in others, within yourself, you cherished it and protected it with your life.

The sound of the whistle was unexpected, and Iruka hurriedly poured the tea into two mugs, knowing that there was no way Naruto would have allowed himself to sleep yet. With his elbow, he turned off the kitchen light and effortlessly navigated through the dark hallway, entering the bedroom. Naruto had turned the dim bedside light on, despite his own request

for darkness.

Naruto was now under the covers, tiredly watching him walk in. If it had been any other night, Iruka would have stayed with him in bed and let him sleeep, but Naruto had nightmares, and he would more than likely have some tonight if they both didn't take some time to just calm.

Naruto wrinkled his nose playfully at the older man, knowing how much he loved the tea. "What, no ramen?" Iruka mock glared at him but placed the tea on the bedside table anyway and sat down next to him, drinking silently. "But Iruuuuuukaaaaa...I want Ramen!"

"Yes, but you'll drink the tea." Iruka took another sip of his tea before setting it aside and pulling Naruto towards him for a kiss. Smirking at his victory, he once again turned to his cup.

Naruto licked his lips, concedeing and grabbing one of the cups of tea. It was okay stuff, but it was good to remind Iruka of the finer things in life every once in a while. "I knew there was a reason I loved you...Iruka Sensei." He drew the title out, knowing it annoyed the older man; tellingly, Iruka's eyes twitched in response but he showed no outward sign.

"Beacause I'm the one who cooks all your meals for you?" Iruka shot back at him, lightly. He leaned over, turning of the light and setting down his cup. The room was now completely dark. Naruto didn't have training tomorrow so it didn't matter that the light outside was a little brighter.

Naruto set the cup on the floor, oblivious to knowing that Iruka would be extremely annoyed tomorrow, crawling out of bed and knocking it over. He wrapped his arms around Iruka from behind, closing his eyes. "Your the one who is important to me. Your the person who loves me."

Iruka murmured noncomittedly, trying to go to sleep. Naruto really should have gone to sleep earler; he usually made a point to be in and out of his house before the neighbors might have seen him around Iruka's apartment. It didn't really matter; if they saw him tomorrow it didn't matter. They weren't going to give up, and no one would stop this; them.

Fin

Okies...So i added just a liiiiiiitle bit...still SUCKS. Oya...I really do need to edit my stuff more. the ideas are there but the fingers refuse to cooperate...Sad really, I'm really good at the eidting stuff, and all that crap...I just suck at typing...You see? This is the result of TWO FREAKING YEARS of typing classes...it helped so much ...not.


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